I40 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



in contrast to a beyond, and therefore the absolute, 

 as really extended, is undeniably made relative. 

 Should it be replied that this relativity is fallacious 

 because it is only a relation to unreality, as real space 

 x's, finite, and so the pretended beyond on which the 

 Actual is said to depend is a pure illusion, the empty 

 " infinite of the imagination " : then we should have 

 the worse case, that the Actual has to be relative to 

 this phantasmal act of consciousness ; and we should 

 end in the contradiction, that the absolute is con- 

 ditioned by its own unreal product. So impossible is 

 it to define the Real except in terms of thought. 



The insufficiency of the Actual exposes itself still 

 further, when Diihring comes to discuss the origin of 

 consciousness and the reach of knowledge. He 

 takes a fatal step when he seeks the "common root " 

 of sense and understanding in a time-and-space 

 prius, ignoring the fact that he has given no answer 

 but bald denial to the Kantian doctrine of the 

 ideality of space and time ; and that, until the 

 supports of this doctrine are removed, there can be 

 no use of these elements to locate a root of con- 

 sciousness : to search for the prius of something, 

 in a region still presumably the result of that 

 something, is an industry not likely to be largely 

 rewarded. Duhring's entire dialectic, like the part 

 of it shown in his attempted refutation of the 

 Kantian antinomies, rests on the assumption, which 



